Hmmm... I have to take issue with Sir Paul regarding his references to Les Pauls knowledge of guitars...

Gibson developed the guitar and asked Les to endorse it... which he was reluctant to do! He had no involvement whatsoever in its design and development, hence his reluctance to allow them to use his name...

I don't think I learned much new from that - although I admit to liking the guitars a lot too. MacCartney has been annoyingly lax with his lyrics on many occasions, but he has always developed as a musician and his command of melody construction is up there with the greats. Just an opinion...

Totally agree. Some (many?) of his lyrics have been really poor, but when it comes to melody, and counter melody, he's certainly up there with the best. michaelr may not care for it, but the counter melody on this:

A quick Wiki-search will back up Bernard's assertion, somewhat. Gibson rejected 'the log' solid body design, came up with their own and asked him to endorse it. After suggesting come cosmetic, component and materials changes he signed off and the rest is history.

Btw, I agree that his post-Beatles material is sorely lacking. It would seem he needed John's BS-meter to keep him on his toes. And when one watches old footage(God bless youtube)it's obvious he was light-years ahead of everybody, musically. John said one of the reasons they broke up was because he and George got tired of being Paul's back-up band. But, that's a whole other discussion.